TERRAFORMING TERRA
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

It is hard to determine if they found any evidence when self reporting users actually high scaled the cannabis. The whole study is problematic and 1500 is not a great sample either. Throw away five somehow and fine detail ends.We now have a large body of reports that are generally uncovering a benefit for chronic pain. Even they are far from conclusive though. What most of this is saying is that the underlying problems require actual healing which CBDs do sometime confer.If healing is not part of the equation it is hard to think that pain relief is ever enough and all reporting must naturally vary over time as sensitivity fluctuates. .. Controversial Australian study finds no evidence that cannabis helps chronic pain

July 3rd, 2018 A
new Australian study is casting doubt over the efficacy of cannabis as a
tool to treat chronic pain despite prior studies suggesting the
contrary(Credit: yellow2j/Depositphotos) https://newatlas.com/australian-cannabis-chronic-pain-study/55298/

The
results of one of the world's longest in-depth studies examining the
relationship between cannabis use and chronic pain is raising doubts
over whether cannabis reduces either pain severity or opioid use. The
study, recently published in Lancet Public Health, is proving controversial as its findings contradict a growing body of research suggesting exactly the opposite.

The new Australian
research, from the National Drug & Alcohol Research Center at UNSW
Sydney, tracked over 1,500 subjects for four years. Participants
suffered from chronic, non-cancer pain, and were all currently
prescribed opioids as their primary pain management tool. Following a
baseline interview and a three-month follow up, the subjects were
reinterviewed every year for the following four years.

Using questionnaires and
interviews all subjects self-reported their pain severity, mental
well-being, and opioid and cannabis use. The results found no evidence
that cannabis use reduces pain severity, in fact, the study reported
that those using cannabis reported higher levels of both pain and
anxiety compared to those not using the drug.

"At each assessment,
participants who were using cannabis reported greater pain and anxiety,
were coping less well with their pain, and reported that pain was
interfering more in their life, compared to those not using cannabis,"
says Gabrielle Campbell, lead author on the study. "There was no clear
evidence that cannabis led to reduced pain severity or pain interference
or led participants to reduce their opioid use or dose."

The
study is proving reasonably controversial in the field of medical
marijuana research for its seemingly contradictory results when compared to other recent similar studies.
While studies on the effects of cannabis for chronic pain have
historically presented rather mixed results this seems to be due to the
lack of specificity in many of these studies, as well as an inability to
objectively determine a metric for pain severity.

Other research into more specific dosages and administrations
of cannabis in relation to the drug's analgesic effects have found that
low versus high dosing can make a key difference in the efficacy of its
pain-modulating effects.

Another anachronistic element of
this new study is the fact that while adjusted longitudinal analyses
found no difference in pain severity between cannabis and non-cannabis
users, the acute self-reporting of individual cannabis users suggested
it was indeed effective for their pain. In fact, the study reports that
the mean score for cannabis' efficacy on pain as self-reported by
individual cannabis users was seven out of 10. The researchers
hypothesize this odd inconsistency could possibly be due to cannabis'
effects on other lifestyle aspects, such as improving sleep, which
subsequently improves well being.

This data point importantly
suggests that the effects of cannabis on the overall well being of a
patient suffering from chronic pain cannot be easily measured by simply
trying to calculate acute pain severity.

A systematic review
of all the current research by the National Academies of Sciences in
2017 concluded there is, "substantial evidence that cannabis is an
effective treatment for chronic pain in adults." This review did note,
however, that variations in different clinical study conclusions
reflected the assortment of different doses and routes of
administration, suggesting more specific work needed to be done to
accurately find effective consumption methods.

One of the most significant
limitations of this new study stems from the fact that for the majority
of this Australian study, medicinal cannabis was illegal. This means the
study collected no data on how subjects were consuming the cannabis or
what form it took. David Caldicott, a researcher from Australian
National University, even suggested in an interview with Buzzfeed, that all this study proves is that medical marijuana in an illicit market doesn't work.

"This paper shows that an
unregulated market doesn't appear to work, but it certainly doesn't
prove that medicinal cannabinoids don't work for pain,' says Caldicott.

It is also very significant
to note the overall numbers of cannabis users versus non-cannabis users
in the study seems to be markedly out of balance. At the final
four-year follow up point there were a total of 1,217 subjects still in
contact with the researchers. Of that number, only six percent (or 79
subjects) reported daily or near-daily cannabis use, and only 16 percent
reported using cannabis at any point over the past 12 months.

In Australia, medical
cannabis usage was only approved for a very limited number of conditions
in 2016. While the United States and Canada are moving to more broadly
allow recreational usages of the drug, Australia is moving much more
slowly and conservatively. Despite the disappointing limitations of this
study, and its conclusions being somewhat inconsistent with broader
international research, it may slow down further medical cannabis
legislation in the country over the coming years.

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18 years old, having cleaned out my HS library, I concluded the only ambition worth having was becoming a great genius. An inner voice cheered. Yet it is my path I have shared much to the Human Gesalt. Mar 2017 - 4.56 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO described as the SPACE TIME PENDULUM. Sep 2010 -My essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in Relativity. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled Paradigms Shift. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data, record impressions, interpretations and to introduce new insights to readers.